Breakdown of Ten stary plan nie jest ani praktyczny, ani skuteczny.
być
to be
nie
no / not
ten
this (m)
stary
old
plan
plan
ani
neither / nor
praktyczny
practical
skuteczny
effective
Questions & Answers about Ten stary plan nie jest ani praktyczny, ani skuteczny.
Why is there a nie before jest when the English translation says "is neither"?
Polish requires "negative concord," which means you must use a double negative. Whenever you use negative words like ani ... ani (neither ... nor), the main verb must also be negated with nie. Literally, the sentence translates to "This old plan is not neither practical nor effective."
Why is there a comma before the second ani?
In Polish punctuation rules, whenever you use a repeating conjunction pair like ani ... ani (neither ... nor) or albo ... albo (either ... or), you must always place a comma right before the second part of the pair.
Doesn't the verb być (to be) usually require the Instrumental case? Why are praktyczny and skuteczny in the Nominative?
You only use the Instrumental case after być when you are equating the subject with another noun (like saying "He is a doctor"). When the words following the verb are just adjectives describing the subject, as they are here, they stay in the Nominative case to match the subject plan.
Why do so many words in this sentence end in "-y"?
The words stary, praktyczny, and skuteczny are all adjectives describing the masculine noun plan. In the Nominative case, the standard ending for masculine adjectives is "-y". The word ten (this) is also the masculine form, completing the matching agreement chain.
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